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Oracle Database 11gR2: Installing Grid Infrastructure - Page 2

Installing Oracle Grid Infrastructure

I
know this probably seems like an immense amount of preparation, but based on my
numerous attempts at installing the Grid Infrastructure in both 32- and 64-bit
environments, Ive found that its important to perform it properly and
carefully; otherwise, Im just going to have to return to my checklist to
figure out what I missed before I can complete the installation. But once these
setup steps are completed, its time to begin installation of the Grid
Infrastructure through Oracle Universal
Installer (OUI). OUI gets a welcome facelift in this release, and
thats evident from the first panel thats displayed after invoking the runInstaller
command script from the Grid Infrastructure staging directory as shown in Figure 1.1 below:

Note
that Ive chosen the option to install Grid Infrastructure for a standalone
server; the installation for a clustered environment like Real Application
Clusters is obviously quite different. The next panel allows me to select which
languages will be supported for this installation (Figure 1.2):

And
now the beauty of using ASMLIB is apparent: Its really easy to see which
virtual disks are which because Im able to label the mount points any way I
choose for simpler management and identification, as shown in Figure 1.3.:

Now
that my initial ASM disk group configuration is complete, the next two panels
allow me to specify a strong, secure password
(Figure 1.4) as well as assign
appropriate operating system groups
(Figure 1.5):

Figure 1.4. Choosing ASM Passwords.

Figure 1.5. Specifying ASM Administration Groups.

Note
that the location for my Grid Infrastructure is placed within the same general
path that a traditional Oracle database home would be placed, as shown in Figure 1.6 below.

Figure 1.6. Choosing Grid Infrastructure Home Path.

And
heres a neat new feature! As shown in Figure 1.7, once Oracle 11gR2 has automatically verified that all
prerequisites have been met, it identifies whether any of the issues detected
can be ignored (at my peril, of course!) or even repaired automatically by generating
a fixit.sh
script:

Figure 1.7. Validating Installation Prerequisites.

Since
I know from prior installation attempts that the reported issues are not show
stoppers, I simply selected the Ignore All option on the panel,
and OUI then presents me with a summary of what it intends to accomplish during
the installation. Note another neat feature: I can tell OUI to generate a
response file just by clicking the Save Response File ... button.

Figure 1.8. Final Confirmation.

As
the installation continues, OUI returns a summary of its status, but note that
I can opt to view a detailed summary of that installation at any time by
clicking on the Details button:

Figure 1.9.1. Installation Progress.

Figure 1.9.2. Installation Details.

At
last, the expected prompt to run the root.sh script  always a good
sign that the majority of the installation is complete.

Figure 1.9.3. root.sh Prompt.

Figure 1.9.4. Post-root.sh Configuration.

Now
that all configuration assistants have completed their work, OUI pats me on the
back for a job well done.

Figure 1.10. Installation Confirmation.

Next Steps

In
the next article in this series, Ill demonstrate how to configure the new ASM Clustered File System (ACFS) to show
how ACFS makes short work of applying patches to the binary files for any
Oracle Home so configured.

References and
Additional Reading

Before
you proceed to experiment with any of these new features, I strongly suggest
that you first look over the corresponding detailed Oracle documentation before
trying them out for the first time. Ive drawn upon the following Oracle
Database 11g Release 2 documents
for this articles technical details: